It is a small wooden chest adorned with a magnificent mosaic of mother-of-pearl and red limestone with a black lapis lazuli background. “The Standard of Ur” depicts a battlefield scene, about 4500 years ago, where Sumerians lead the fight with chariots drawn by equines. Since its discovery in 1920 south of Baghdad (Iraq), this priceless treasure, kept at the British Museum in London (Great Britain) has never ceased to challenge specialists. And for good reason, domestic horses only appeared in the Fertile Crescent half a millennium later (about 4000 years ago). Some archaeologists have implied that the standard was a fake, others – most – have sought to understand this anachronism.
An exceptional paleogenetic study
The veil has just been lifted by a team of researchers from the Jacques Monod Institute (CNRS/University of Paris) thanks to genetics in an article recently published by the journal Science Advances : the canassons represented are not domestic horses but hybrid animals, a cross between two breeds of donkeys including a wild one from the Hémiones family. “We studied the genomes of 44 equines lying in an exceptional princely tomb, that of Umm el-Marra located about sixty kilometers east of Aleppo (Syria)”, explains Eva-Maria Geigl, one of the main authors of the study. Then, they compared their results with the genome of a hemione found in Göbelkli Tepe, in the south-east of present-day Turkey and 11,000 years old, which represents one of the last known wild donkeys that disappeared at the beginning of the 20th century. century.
44 equine remains from this princely tomb made it possible to decipher their genome.
@Glenn Schwartz, John Hopkins University
The result showed that the animals of Umm el-Marra are indeed the fruit of a coupling between a hemione (presence of the X chromosome from the father) and a domesticated donkey (via the mitochondrial DNA transmitted by the mother). “Obviously, these animals were sterile, which implies that to have a new baby, it was necessary each time to capture a wild Hémione before the mating phase”, continues Eva-Maria Geigl. A relatively difficult task since the animal was naturally aggressive and particularly fast.
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A multi-millennial geo-engineering technology
For the specialists of the Jacques Monod Institute, the Sumerians must have discovered this hybridization in nature, before having had the idea of organizing it in an almost industrial way. “Written sources reveal that there was a production center in Nadar, northern Syria with an elaborate chain and special expertise,” adds the researcher. The kungas thus obtained were therefore more easily tamed but had a high speed of movement, significant robustness and great endurance. They were therefore highly sought after and, beyond their aptitude in times of war, were exchanged at a price of gold: cuneiform tablets, mainly transaction records, thus underline “that a kunga was worth six domesticated donkeys”. No wonder then to find some of them in rich tombs like that of Umm el-Marra where they were grouped together in fours behind their chariot. A very studied scene.
They were also to be used as wedding gifts within the ruling classes and were used during victorious parades or for other ceremonies. Another proof of their great value, those exhumed on the Syrian site had rings at the level of the nostrils and the study of their teeth revealed traces of wear. “These kungas were not supposed to graze but to be fed, which shows how pampered they were,” concludes Eva-Maria Geigl.
Details of the bas-relief of Nineveh (645 – 635 BC) preserved in the British Museum
@EM. Geigl / IJM / Cnrs-University of Paris.
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In addition to the publication of the Jacques Monod Institute reporting on the oldest hybridization produced by man, it reveals that this period coincides with a disruption of technologies. In the Near East during the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC, so in the middle of the Bronze Age, stone was gradually replaced by metal. The implementation of this “bio-engineering” much earlier than previously thought therefore reinforces this “great leap forward”. The horse will be domesticated 500 years later (in the 2nd millennium BC) and will gradually supplant the kungas in the art of war.
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